Wednesday, February 09, 2005Hey look, we made the national news!
Well, middle Tennessee has made the national news...and it's not for anything good.

Seems that McMinnville has its own version of Mary Kay Louterno with Pamela Turner, a 27-year old teacher who was taken in on allegations that she had sex with one of her 13-year old students. She's out now on bond and will be in court again later this month. (How much you want to bet it's a media circus?)

She'd best get a good lawyer...sounds like she's gonna be in court a lot since her husband has also filed for divorce on grounds of "inappropriate marital conduct."

Now, reading this story, a couple of things boggle my mind. First of all, I visited McMinnville's The Southern Standard site to get the local reaction--a lot of people are shocked and appalled (they always are). The Standard also has a photo of Turner as does the Smoking Gun and this report. (The only images I've seen on the news are of her with her hat down and hiding her face...honey, that ain't gonna work long in the Internet age). Looking at her, she's not unattractive and she was married. So why was did she allegedly have sex with a 13 year old boy? I just don't get the attraction or the appeal.

That said, local radio host Steve Gill had an interesting point about this story this morning. He went on at length about the double standard we have in our country...and how if this were a male teacher allegedly sleeping with a 13-year old female student, then we'd be out to tar and feather the guy. But because it's a 13-year old male, he kind of snicker and make a few jokes about it but don't get outraged that she abused her authority with this minor and conducted an inappropriate relationship with him.